I tend not to write about Ann Coulter much anymore. If I wrote every time she said something outrageously insulting, then all I'd do is write about Ann Coulter. Not only would that be a waste of time and space, but it would be close to soul crushing. Besides, Ann Coulter wants you to be "outraged." It's pretty clear. Her reason to exist appears to be to say things that will "outrage" liberals -- that not only gets them and everyone talking about her, but moves the discussion from things that matter, and from actual conservative outrages, not just one person's outlandish opinions.

On occasion, though, it's not that she'll go over the edge, or pass the line decency, but do so in a way that's actually pretty funny, though not intentionally so. And so ridicule is the proper response, not "outrage" at all.

Such is the case where last Monday the dear lady was on Bill O'Reilly's Fox TV show and (among other things) said --

"The way Republicans win is by driving up the white vote. It is not by appealing to women or Hispanics or blacks. In fact, those groups are going to start fighting among one another ... How about, for once, appealing to your base? The Democrats obsess on 'How do we get gun rights voters to support us a tiny bit more? How do we get pro-lifers to support us? Let's get a slice of the evangelicals.'"

Now, yes, I know a lot of people were "outraged" by this. But I actually like it when Ann Coulter gives political advice to the Republican Party. Keep in mind that before the last presidential election, she implored Chris Christie to run. Today, Chris Christie is polling so low among Republicans that he might not even make it on the "Fox Top 10" cut list for presidential debates.

So, if Ann Coulter wants to convince the GOP to ignore appealing to women, who are the majority of Americans -- or ignore appealing to Hispanics, who are the fastest growing minority group in America, to the extent the at some point they will likely be the largest group in the country. Or ignore blacks or Jews or French-Canadians, or whoever she wants...you go, girl! You convince the GOP to focus only on white men. And let's see how far that takes you.

(Yes, I know she said to drive up the "white vote," not just white men, but since she also said to ignore appealing to women, it's fair to accept that she's not all that bothered if the interests of white women are ignored. So, that leaves the white guys.)

This "outrage" over ignoring every group except pushing the white male vote, though, isn't the funniest thing in Ms. Coulter's really cool idea.

After all, even Bill O'Reilly himself was taken aback enough to push back with poll numbers about how the majority of Americans support a back of issues he named that tend to be more liberal, and wondered if it was all that great a plan to ignore going after the Hispanic vote. And you have to love her snappy, meaningful comeback about those polls.

"They're all lying," she said -- offering no evidence, of course, to contradict all the polls, just CoulterPerception. (How insightful is CoulterPerception? Back in October of last year, the wise seer was again on The O'Reilly Factor and -- talking about Hispanic voters, said, ""Instead of constantly sucking up to a group of people who will never vote for you, how about appealing to the other voters who are just going to stay home and say 'screw you.'" Ha! God love her. Hispanics "will never voter vote for you"??! Seriously? For decades, Hispanics were the solidly conservative minority group who Democrats just could break through to. That was of course until the Republican Party started saying, "screw you," to them, and wanted to deport as many Hispanics as possible -- except for all those who would politely "self-deport" themselves.)

But none of this is the funniest thing in Ms. Coulter's statements. It hasn't gotten the attention of the rest of her comic monologue, but is something buried back in that original quote above. It's when she said --

"How about, for once, appealing to your base?"

For once? Seriously??? No, I mean, seriously??!!! If Ann Coulter actually, truly, honestly believes that the officials and politicians in the Republican Party have not yet once appealed to its base then nothing else need be shown how observationally-challenged she is. This is a party whose last presidential nominee Mitt Romney, the former governor of the very blue state of Massachusetts, who signed into law the state health care act that's one of the foundations of "Obamacare, who in order to get his party's nomination was forced to not just appeal, but pander SO much to the GOP base that he contradicted what seemed to be almost every personal believe he'd ever held, but would go around pleading for Republican voters to believe that he was the most conservative candidate on the slate. A slate, to remind you , that included Rick Santorum (running on the "Let's get rid of condoms" religious-right platform), Newt Gingrich (architect of the GOP's "Contract on America"), Michele Bachmann (making a heavy play for the flat earth voters) and Rick Perry (who happily belonged to the, literally-named, Niggerhead Gun Club), among others. But Mitt Romney had to convince the base that he was more to the right than even any of these!"How about, for once, appealing to your base?"

For once. Yes, for just once, why don't Republicans appeal to their far right base.

Quick, name every liberal Republican senator you can. Don't worry about the "quick", it won't take long. For that matter, go ahead and name any liberal Republican in Congress, period.

By the way, the last time there was a Republican senator who even crossed the moderate line and could even see "liberal" from where he stood was Lincoln Chafee -- and he was so out of touch with the GOP base that he's now running for president...as a Democrat!!

"How about, for once, appealing to your base?"

Seriously?

The only other alternative is that Ann Coulter didn't mean that and was just trying to be "outrageous," and doesn't even remotely believe a word of what she says.

Seriously your comment on Ann Coulter was laughable. Not only was it badly written you seemed to fall even further into the distorted propaganda that you accused her of doing. I honestly thought your comment was part of a comedy act. Was it?
And please! Please! Can you stop yelling with your exclamations and question marks. Im embarrassed for you. Not Ann Coulter.

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Robert Elisberg

6/15/2015 10:26:34 am

Dear Gotmouth, thanks for taking the time to write. Sorry you get offended by the use of question marks and exclamation points. (Though I see you like using them, so good for that! Though you left out an apostrophe.) Clearly if you love Ann Coulter, as appears the case, I understand why you would think my article was "badly written." But then, I don't believe you "honestly" felt it was part of a comedy act, so I take it all with a grain of salt. Is "gotmouth" your given name? It sounds Norwegian.

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Author

Robert J. Elisberg is a two-time recipient of the Lucille Ball Award for comedy screenwriting. He's written for film, TV, the stage, and two best-selling novels, and is a regular columnist for the Huffington Post and the Writers Guild of America. Among his other writing, he has a long-time column on technology (which he sometimes understands), and co-wrote a book on world travel. As a lyricist, he is a member of ASCAP, and has contributed to numerous publications.